Conventionally, a fuel feed pump includes a fuel pump for supplying fuel from a fuel tank into an internal combustion engine. According to JP-A-2004-197718, a fuel feed apparatus includes a jet pump for generating suction pressure by jetting fuel, which is discharged from a fuel pump, partially from a nozzle. The fuel feed pump includes a fuel passage through which the fuel pump discharges fuel. A residual-pressure-retention valve is provided to the fuel passage in an upstream of the jet pump. When the fuel pump stops, the pressure-retention valve retains fuel in the fuel passage by blocking from the jet pump, so as to maintain pressure in the fuel passage at predetermined pressure. In this structure, fuel at the predetermined pressure can be quickly supplied when the internal combustion engine requests fuel supply in a case where the fuel pump stops.
Another generally-known fuel feed apparatus includes a pressure-control valve for controlling pressure of fuel, which is discharged from a fuel pump, to be less than predetermined pressure.
In each of conventional fuel feed apparatuses, one of the pressure-retention valve and the pressure-control valve is provided to a pump bracket such as a filter case, and the other of the pressure-retention valve and the pressure-control valve is provided to a pipe, which communicates an outlet of a filter case with the internal combustion engine. In these structures, the location of the valve in the pipe is limited to specific positions within the vehicle. Accordingly, arrangement of the valve is subjected with constraints in the installation of the fuel feed apparatus in the vehicle.
A fuel feed apparatus may not include the pressure-retention valve or the pressure-control valve in dependence upon types of vehicles. Conventionally, a fuel feed apparatus is modified for combination of the pressure-retention valve and/or the pressure-control valve, in accordance with existence or nonexistence of the pressure-retention valve and/or the pressure-control valve. Accordingly, commonality of the mounting structure of the fuel feed apparatus cannot be achieved in different kinds of vehicles.